Nail tech Robin Moses' passion is painting multi-media artworks on canvas.

Nail tech Robin Moses' passion is painting multi-media artworks on canvas.

After more than 20 years of painting nails — a very tiny, very temporary medium — nail tech Robin Moses wants to show the world her true passion: her work on canvas. "My artwork is multi-media," says Moses. "I begin with an idea, then collect the things that promote and generate that idea and slowly build layers to my art until I create a story. My work is based on female heroes in mythology and art. I portray famous women in stories both wrathful and peaceful, but all powerful women throughout time."

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And she doesn’t limit herself to paint. "You will find string, buttons, cork, mirrors, dried leaves, tickets to concerts I’ve attended, and passages from my favorite novels — all to help tell the tale of the picture I am painting," she says. "There are layers of acrylic paint, spray paint, gesso, and twigs. Everything I use in my paintings speaks its own truth and adds to the story I am trying to tell."

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She’s thought a lot, she says, about the difference between painting a nail (you can catch her nail art tutorials at robinmoses.com) and a canvas: "The story is mine as opposed to a design a client chooses and I can add and add and tell an in-depth story on canvas that could never fit on a nail. A canvas lasts forever and many eyes can view it instead of a nail that is washed away in two weeks."

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